464 AMEKICAN FAEMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



be fed here as well as sheltered. Troughs should be arranged 

 under the racks, to put other feed in when the colts may re- 

 quire it. 



It will here be proper again to call the attention of the 

 practical stock-raiser to the diseased condition that so often 

 characterizes the colt's mouth, as a consequence of teething. 

 Perhaps the best place to give the young animal the rem- 

 edies that will correct this state will be right here in these 

 feeding-troughs. The shabby plight of many a colt proceeds 

 from indigestion, caused and kept up by the soreness and in- 

 flammation of the mouth and gums. Good wood ashes, with 

 plenty of salt, kept constantly in the feeding-troughs, will 

 have the happiest eftect in abating the evils referred to, and 

 in mitigating the sufferings of colthood. Sulphur, also, may 

 be used in the same way with very marked benefit. Kot only 

 is it worth a thousand times its cost, as a preventive of dis- 

 ease, but it will effectually destroy and keep away vermin of 

 every description. 



On many farms there exists a great lack of shade-trees, 

 not a few pastures being totally destitute of them, and this 

 is another most weighty reason for the erection of such 

 shelters as we have described. It is absolutely essential to 

 the comfort and well-being of stock, especially of the colts, 

 that they have some cool retreat under which to retire from 

 the burning rays of our midsummer and dog-day suns ; and 

 where there are no trees to afford a natural shade, an arti- 

 ficial substitute for them becomes a necessary appendage 

 upon every well-regulated stock farm. 



Shade-trees are the beauty and blessing of the pasture, 

 and there will be a very perceptible difierence in the fall 

 between the appearance of a colt that runs in a well-shaded 

 pasture and that of another which has no shelter from the 

 noon-day heats. The young animal can not be continually 

 exposed to the down-pouring of the sun's fierce rays, through 

 the hottest months of the year, without suffering plainly 

 from debility and depression. One of the first things to be 

 done in a new pasture, if shade is unfortunately lacking in 



